Baked Weeknight Doughnuts (Cinnamon Sugar)
Tender nutmeg cake doughnuts baked in a doughnut pan in 10 minutes and shaken in cinnamon sugar while warm: no yeast, no frying, about half an hour start to finish.
A baked doughnut is really a cake doughnut batter baked in a ring-shaped pan, closer to a muffin than to anything fried. It relies on the same chemical leaveners that made fried cake doughnuts possible in 19th-century America (see our Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts recipe). King Arthur Baking's PJ Hamel built this one as a quick base for three finishes: cinnamon sugar, plain sugar or a glaze.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Tender nutmeg cake doughnuts baked in a doughnut pan in 10 minutes and shaken in cinnamon sugar while warm: no yeast, no frying, about half an hour start to finish.
🇳🇱 The original
The ancestor is Dutch: oliebollen, balls of yeast dough studded with currants and raisins, fried in oil and dusted with powdered sugar, which settlers brought to New Amsterdam as olykoeks. See the Dutch Oliebollen (New Year's Eve Doughnuts) recipe.
📖 Myth check: Is the Apple Cider Doughnut an Old New England Tradition? →
Why it works the kitchen science
Butter and oil
Butter brings flavor, and oil keeps the doughnuts moist and soft for days, which matters without frying (King Arthur's ratio).
Hot oven, top rack
A short bake at 375°F near the top browns the doughnuts before the thin rings dry out.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the top third. Lightly grease two doughnut pans.
- Step 2
Beat the butter, oil and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs.
- Step 3
Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla.
- Step 4
Add the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour, and mix until smooth; the batter will be thick.
- Step 5
Spoon the batter into the pans, filling each cavity to about 1/4 inch below the rim. Bake side by side on the top rack 10 to 12 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Step 6
Rest 5 to 7 minutes, turn out onto a rack and, while warm, shake them a few at a time in a bag with the cinnamon sugar.
Baked Weeknight Doughnuts (Cinnamon Sugar)
Serves 12 (one doughnut each) · 12 doughnuts · 35 min total
Batter
- 4 tbsp (57 g) butter, softened
- 1/4 cup (50 g) vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (99 g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (71 g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 to 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cups (320 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (227 g) milk
Coating
- 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the top third. Lightly grease two doughnut pans.
- Beat the butter, oil and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs.
- Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla.
- Add the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour, and mix until smooth; the batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into the pans, filling each cavity to about 1/4 inch below the rim. Bake side by side on the top rack 10 to 12 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Rest 5 to 7 minutes, turn out onto a rack and, while warm, shake them a few at a time in a bag with the cinnamon sugar.
Adapted from King Arthur Baking, "Baked Doughnuts Three Ways" by PJ Hamel (updated October 2, 2026), as written for 12, cinnamon-sugar finish. King Arthur gives 1/4 to 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar without a ratio; our mix is 1/4 cup sugar with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and the share that sticks is our estimate. You need two standard 6-cavity doughnut pans. King Arthur Baking. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (1)
Tips
- No doughnut pan? Bake the batter as muffins about 15 to 18 minutes; they will taste the same.
- King Arthur prefers non-melting topping sugar for a plain sugar coat; confectioners' sugar melts in.
- Stir in 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips and fill the cavities to the rim for King Arthur's chocolate chip version.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- A baked doughnut is a doughnut. Folklore: it is a cake batter baked in a ring; King Arthur calls it a doughnut for the shape, not the method.
- Doughnuts must be fried. Disputed: every other recipe in this hub fries, but the word "doughnut" only describes dough, and baked versions are now common.
- Nutmeg is the doughnut spice. Folklore: old American cake doughnut recipes often use it, and King Arthur gives a range so you can taste for yourself.
Every other doughnut
Dutch Oliebollen (New Year's Eve Doughnuts)
Scoops of soft yeast batter studded with raisins and currants, fried round and golden and buried in powdered sugar, the Dutch New Year's Eve treat and a cousin of the olykoeks the Dutch made in old New York.
German Berliner (Jam-Filled Krapfen)
Soft balls of butter-and-egg yeast dough fried with their pale "collar", rolled in sugar and piped full of jam: the German jelly doughnut, called Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Krapfen or Kreppel depending on where you buy it.
Polish Pączki (Fat Thursday Doughnuts)
Extra-rich jelly doughnuts made with egg yolks, butter and vanilla, fried deep mahogany, tossed in powdered sugar and filled with plum, rose petal or raspberry jam for Fat Thursday.
Israeli Sufganiyot (Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts)
Small yeast doughnuts scented with cinnamon, fried hot and fast for Hanukkah, filled with a spoonful of berry or plum preserves and rolled in sugar, from Joan Nathan's 1979 holiday cookbook.
Portuguese Malasadas (and Hawaii's Malasada Day)
Hole-less yeast doughnuts made with bread flour, milk and eggs, patted into disks, fried golden and tossed in sugar while hot: the Portuguese Shrove Tuesday treat that became Hawaii's Malasada Day.
Tuscan Bomboloni alla Crema (Custard Doughnuts)
Big, cloud-soft Italian doughnuts made from a folded yeast dough, fried slow and pale gold, filled with lemon-and-vanilla pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar, the way Tuscan bakeries and beach carts sell them.
Greek Loukoumades (Honey Doughnut Puffs)
Spoonfuls of a bubbly yeast batter fried into crisp golden puffs, dropped into cold honey syrup and showered with walnuts, cinnamon and sesame, Greece's favorite street-food sweet.
New Orleans Beignets
Squares of a very wet, eggy yeast dough fried until they balloon, then buried in powdered sugar, the French Quarter coffee-stand doughnut, made at home.
Classic Yeast-Raised Glazed Doughnuts
Tall, airy ring doughnuts from a buttery dough that rests overnight in the fridge, proofed in a steamy oven, fried golden and dipped in a sheer vanilla glaze that sets matte and crackly.
Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts
Tangy sour cream and buttermilk cake doughnuts, chilled, cut and fried until craggy and crisp at the edges, then dipped in a thin vanilla glaze that settles into every crack.
Apple Cider Doughnuts
Tender cake doughnuts flavored with apple, buttermilk, cinnamon and nutmeg, fried in two minutes and tossed in cinnamon sugar, the fall orchard and cider-mill classic made at home.
Hot Glazed Doughnuts, Inspired by Krispy Kreme
Light, fluffy yeast rings made with shortening, fried in shortening and dipped while warm in a thin, warm glaze of powdered sugar, milk and corn syrup, a home take on the famous hot glazed doughnut. Inspired by, not official.
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Big, tender meatballs braised for an hour in red sauce over spaghetti. The one most Americans grew up with.
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Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar)
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Danish Frikadeller
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